Oil City Brass Works building is demolished

Dan Wallac, Beaumont Enterprise

By Dan Wallach

Updated 6:08 pm, Monday, April 7, 2014

Workers demolish the remains of the Oil City Brass Works building on Monday. The structure was hoped to be used as a children's museum, but extensive damage prevented renovations.
Photo taken Monday, April 07, 2014
Guiseppe Barranco/@spotnewsshooter
Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, Photo Editor

Workers demolish the remains of the Oil City Brass Works building...

Workers demolish the remains of the Oil City Brass Works building on Monday. The structure was hoped to be used as a children's museum, but extensive damage prevented renovations.
Photo taken Monday, April 07, 2014
Guiseppe Barranco/@spotnewsshooter
Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, Photo Editor

Workers demolish the remains of the Oil City Brass Works building...

Workers demolish the remains of the Oil City Brass Works building on Monday. The structure was hoped to be used as a children's museum, but extensive damage prevented renovations.
Photo taken Monday, April 07, 2014
Guiseppe Barranco/@spotnewsshooter
Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, Photo Editor

Workers demolish the remains of the Oil City Brass Works building...

An Enterprise-Journal article from July 1972 shows the Bryant family, the founders and leaders of Oil City Brass Works, later called OCB Metals. FILE PHOTO: July 1972
Photo: The Enterprise

An Enterprise-Journal article from July 1972 shows the Bryant...

A cash regester found in the Oil City Brass Works building in Downtwon Beaumont.
Photo taken Friday, January 27, 2012
Guiseppe Barranco/The Enterprise
Photo: Guiseppe Barranco, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

A cash regester found in the Oil City Brass Works building in...

Pictured is the Oil City Brass Works building and the Rotary Club's All-Access Park at the intersection of Crockett and Neches streets on Thursday afternoon. The city had intended to rehabilitate the site as the new Children's Museum but it is now slated for demolition as financial concerns have arisen.
Photo taken Thursday, 3/6/14
Jake Daniels/@JakeD_in_SETX
Photo: Jake Daniels

Pictured is the Oil City Brass Works building and the Rotary Club's...

Pictured is the Oil City Brass Works building and the Rotary Club's All-Access Park at the intersection of Crockett and Neches streets on Thursday afternoon. The city had intended to rehabilitate the site as the new Children's Museum but it is now slated for demolition as financial concerns have arisen.
Photo taken Thursday, 3/6/14
Jake Daniels/@JakeD_in_SETX
Photo: Jake Daniels

Pictured is the Oil City Brass Works building and the Rotary Club's...

Pictured is the Oil City Brass Works building at the intersection of Crockett and Neches streets on Thursday afternoon. The city had intended to rehabilitate the site as the new Children's Museum but it is now slated for demolition as financial concerns have arisen.
Photo taken Thursday, 3/6/14
Jake Daniels/@JakeD_in_SETX
Photo: Jake Daniels

Pictured is the Oil City Brass Works building at the intersection...

Pictured is the Oil City Brass Works building at the intersection of Crockett and Neches streets on Thursday afternoon. The city had intended to rehabilitate the site as the new Children's Museum but it is now slated for demolition as financial concerns have arisen.
Photo taken Thursday, 3/6/14
Jake Daniels/@JakeD_in_SETX
Photo: Jake Daniels

Pictured is the Oil City Brass Works building at the intersection...

Pictured is the Oil City Brass Works building at the intersection of Crockett and Neches streets on Thursday afternoon. The city had intended to rehabilitate the site as the new Children's Museum but it is now slated for demolition as financial concerns have arisen.
Photo taken Thursday, 3/6/14
Jake Daniels/@JakeD_in_SETX
Photo: Jake Daniels

A demolition contractor began carting away the remnants of the former Oil City Brass Works building, at Crockett and Neches streets, the one that organizers of the Children's Museum had looked upon as a possible home.

The building would have been too expensive to renovate, said city development director Chris Boone.

Boone said an engineer estimated the cost of basic renovation would have reached about $1 million. That's before any renovation to turn it into something suitable for the Children's Museum.

It would have been a prime location for it, however. The property is adjacent to the all-access park for children with disabilities, built by the Rotary Club of Beaumont, which donated it to the city last year in celebration of the club's centennial.

The old brass works, which made fittings used in the shipbuilding industry, stood at the eastern end of the city's Event Centre property.

Boone said the city will re-sod the property, plant grass and install lights.